Heard a Call
by WingedFlight
Summary: Samuel wakes in the night to hear a voice calling to him. -- A modern-day telling of 1Samuel:3. One-shot


_**Author's Note: **This is based on the story of Samuel when God was calling to him. I took the original story and put it in a modern-day setting. I admit that my little scribblings are nothing like the original masterpiece, but it gave me much pleasure to write this._

_ The original story can be read in 1Samuel:3. _

* * *

"Samuel!"

I groaned and rolled over on the couch, opening my eyes rather blurrily. "Wha-?" I mumbled, looking around. There was no one in sight, but the room _was_ awfully dark.

"Samuel!"

The voice was obviously not giving up. It sounded as though it was coming from another room, although I could hear it quite clearly.

I pushed off the blanket and stood up, only just beginning to realize I didn't even know who was calling me. The voice didn't sound familiar…

"Samuel!"

Wait a minute. The voice called me Samuel, not Sam. Only my great-uncle Eli called me Samuel. Everyone else called me Sam, except my younger sister – she called me Mule. I'd tried explaining to Eli what my preferred name is (incidentally, it isn't Mule) about a hundred times since I'd arrived at his house two days ago, but he didn't seem to understand.

"Samuel!"

"Coming, coming," I called back, and then trudged up the stairs.

The door to Eli's room was closed, and there wasn't any light showing. I wondered for a moment it maybe he'd gotten up in the dark and had fallen or something. Panic seized me, and I threw open the door.

"Uncle Eli, I'm here," I announced quickly, flipping on the light.

There was a groan from the bed, and I saw the blankets move. I ran over to the bedside to see Eli blinking rather groggily.

"Why did you call me, Uncle Eli?" I asked, my concern quickly replaced by annoyance as I saw that Eli looked perfectly all right.

He looked at me strangely. "I didn't."

"But-"

A smile appeared on his weathered face. "You must have been dreaming, boy. Get back to sleep.

"Sorry for waking you, uncle," I murmured as I left the room quickly, embarrassed over the whole ordeal. A chuckle sounded from inside his room.

I quickly fell asleep again, exhausted from my panic and embarrassment.

- - -

"Samuel!"

I blinked wearily, opening my eyes to see that the room was still dark. I felt a strange sense of déjà vu coming on. Where had I heard that voice before?

"Samuel!"

_Oh yeah. _The memory of my "dream" came flooding back to me. Was I dreaming again now? But the voice sounded so real…

"Samuel!"

I concluded that Eli must really need something this time. I once again threw off the blankets and ran up the stairs.

I threw open Eli's door and turned on the light for the second time that night. _Really feeling that déjà vu right now…_ "Here I am, Uncle," I said quickly. "What do you need?"

There was a startled snort, as if someone's steady snoring had just been interrupted, and I felt the sinking feeling that I had once again reacted to a dream.

"Samuel?" Eli's surprised voice came from the bed, sounding nothing like the voice I thought had been calling me. "I think you were dreaming again."

I sighed. All that running for nothing. "Sorry for waking you," I told him, and closed the door. Once I was back on the couch, I promptly fell asleep.

- - -

"Samuel!"

_Oh please, not again! _I pinched myself – ouch – to make sure I was awake.

"Samuel!" I began to wonder whether Eli was playing a trick on me. That would definitely explain why the voice sounded different. I felt a dim flare of anger, but was too tired to sustain it.

"Samuel!"

Well, he wouldn't stop until I went up there. I grumbled as I rolled off the couch, trudged up the stairs and opened the door to Eli's room.

"Uncle Eli?" I said tiredly. "Here I am. And don't tell me you didn't call me, cause I swear I heard my name."

"I didn't call you, boy," Eli told me grumpily.

"Well I know I heard my name, and I definitely wasn't sleeping," I retorted. "And don't tell me it was some sort of supernatural ghost-voice or something."

Eli breathed sharply in surprise. "Of course," he laughed. "How did I not realize?"

I wondered if he'd finally cracked.

"It's God speaking to you, Samuel," he told me. "Next time he calls you-"

"Next time?" I interrupted.

"-tell him, _Here I am, Lord. Your servant is listening._"

I repeated the words dutifully. "Here I am, Lord. Your servant is listening." The words sounded awkward when I said them, and I felt awfully silly repeating them, but I figured, hey, if it'll make the voice stop, I might still get _some_ sleep tonight!

Eli yawned and lay back down on his bed. "Down you go, now," he told me, and I followed his instructions, laying down on the couch to wait for the voice.

- - -

"Samuel!"

That hadn't taken long. I wondered if I had fallen asleep – not that it mattered.

"Samuel!"

I licked my lips, suddenly nervous. What if this really was some supernatural thing? Would I unleash some crazy powers by speaking to it?"

No, that was crazy. I remembered the words Eli had told to me.

"Samuel!"

This time I answered. "Here I am, Lord," I said dutifully. The once heavy words rolled naturally off my tongue as if they had been there all along, and Eli had simply reminded me of them. Suddenly I was sure this was the right thing to say. "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

There was a pause, in which everything was silent, and then – the Voice spoke.


End file.
